The Nevada Department of Wildlife discovered several illegal traps near Thomas Creek southwest of Reno in early December, including one with a bobcat, which NDOW released.

Five game wardens rotated shifts to watch the traps for 130 hours, day and night, and the trapper never showed up. NDOW asks the public to help them find the trapper.

"We spend a lot of time and money to stop this kind of illegal activity, but there is no way to catch someone like this without waiting for him to show back up," Rob Buonamici, NDOW chief game warden, said in a statement. "We don't have the resources to watch these traps indefinitely."

NDOW said the traps were illegal because they were in an area where trapping was prohibited, one of the traps didn't have a spacer to limit damage to legs when animals step in traps and the trapper did not visit the traps within 96 hours and required by law.

They ask anyone who saw trapping in the Thomas Creek area over the past few weeks to call Operation Game Thief at 800-992-3030.